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School-level feature — managed within your school portal at yourschool.deandesk.com.

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Video walkthrough

This walkthrough uses the real DeanDesk interface with the fictional Northstar Academy demo school and a calm, AI-generated English voice. Payments and outside services are not connected in the demo.
The Discussions tab is your course forum. You post a prompt, students respond and reply to each other, and the conversation stays organized in threads. You can make any discussion graded, which adds it to the gradebook as an assignment. Open your course and choose Discussions in the course menu.
Discussions and Chat are different tabs. Discussions are threaded prompts that can be graded. Chat is a real-time group conversation for the whole class.

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The discussion board

The board lists every discussion in the course, with pinned discussions first and the rest ordered by latest activity. Each row shows:
  • The title, plus a pin icon, a lock icon, or a Graded · N pts badge where they apply.
  • Who started it and when it was last active, and the due date for graded discussions.
  • The first line of the prompt and the number of replies.
Click a row to open the thread.
You can always start discussions, and you can grade, pin, lock, edit, or delete any discussion in your course. You can delete any reply, and edit your own.

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Start a discussion

1

Open the composer

Click New discussion.
2

Write the prompt

Enter a Title and the question or topic in Prompt. Use Attachments to add files, such as a reading or an image.
3

Make it graded (optional)

Turn on Graded discussion, then set:
  • Points — the score the discussion is worth (100 by default).
  • Due date and Due time — optional, but set both or neither. The dialog shows which timezone is used.
  • Posts required — how many responses each student must post to the prompt.
  • Replies to classmates — how many replies each student must leave on other students’ responses.
4

Post it

Click Post discussion. The new thread opens right away.
A graded discussion gets its own column in the course gradebook. Posting a discussion does not send notifications, so let students know with an announcement if it’s due soon.

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Read and reply

Open a discussion to see the prompt and every response. For a graded discussion, a banner shows the points, due date, and what students must do, for example To complete: 1 post and 1 reply to classmates.
  • To respond to the prompt, type in Write a response… and click Reply.
  • To answer one student, click Reply under their response, type your note, and click Reply in the reply box.
  • To change your own reply, click Edit under it. As course staff you can also Delete any reply.
When someone replies, the discussion’s author and the author of the response being answered get an in-app notification. The whole class is not notified. Click All discussions to return to the board.

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Moderate a discussion

Open the Discussion actions menu (the three dots at the top right of a thread):
Turning off Graded discussion on an existing discussion removes its gradebook assignment. Deleting a graded discussion removes the assignment too.

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Grade participation

1

Open the grading panel

In a graded discussion, click Grade responses in the banner. The panel lists every active student in the course.
2

Check participation

Each student shows how many posts and replies to classmates they’ve made, with a check mark once they meet the requirements. A response to the prompt counts as a post. A reply to another student’s response counts as a reply to a classmate; replying to your own response doesn’t.
3

Enter a score

Type the score in the student’s box, add optional Feedback (optional), and click Save for that student.
Scores go straight to the gradebook. The participation counts are there to guide you; you always choose the score.

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Who can start discussions

By default, everyone in the course can start a discussion. To limit new discussions to staff:
1

Open the course settings

Click Edit Course at the top of the course.
2

Change the setting

Under Discussions, set Who can create discussions to Teachers and TAs only, then save the course.
Students can always reply to existing discussions, whichever option you choose. To hide the tab entirely, turn off Discussions under Course sidebar on the same page.